Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman created the Portland Children's Levy, a property tax voters have renewed every five years since 2002 to raise money for child-abuse prevention, foster care, early education and hunger prevention.

The bill would allow the city to seek to make the levy a permanent tax.

Brendan Finn, chief of staff to Saltzman, says his boss backed a previous version of the bill and still supports the concept, although he sees ending the state ban on inclusionary housing as a higher priority.